“I have to say that this has been made possible thanks to the fruitful cooperation and support from the regional and municipal authorities of the Leningrad region and St. Petersburg”, said Frank Schauff.

Philippe Pegorier, Chairman of the AEB Board, made a welcome speech. He mentioned that the presence of European companies in the Russian North-Western Federal District has substantially risen since 2010.

“In September 2010, at the European and Russian Business Forum “Successful Together”, the AEB signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Northern Dimension Business Council. Since then we have been cooperating closely with our partners from the Northern Dimension region”, said Philippe Pegorier.

Timo Mikkonen, Chairman of the AEB North-Western Regional Committee moderated the event.

The guests of honour, including Andrey Travnikov, Deputy Plenipotentiary of the RF President in the North-Western region, Luis Portero, Head of the Economic and Trade Section of the EU Delegation to the Russian Federation, and Igor Lonsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg, congratulated the AEB on its 20^th anniversary.

The event was followed by a reception.

The sponsors of the event were: Alinga Consulting Group (gold sponsor), YIT and NCC (silver sponsors). The official supplier was Baltika.